ingalls' homestead

We enjoyed visting the dugout site and putting our toes in Plum Creek. Nothing too overly fabulous or exciting, but a must see for history buffs to imagine the Ingalls family living on the ground you walk. It was an amazing experience for us.

This is a good stop if you are a Little House fan. It has lots of history. Some of the stuff does not seem to be related to the Ingalls family but just from that time period. Still worth the stop.

If you are interested in Minnesota history, or any American history, this is an interesting site. Quite and peaceful marked trails (less than a 1 mile long) and a small picnic area. They charge $5 a carload, which was more than reasonable.

I definitely recommend checking out the museum before heading out to the dugout site. The dugout is on a farm that the owners maintain. There's not much there except for the marked off site, a sign, Plum Creek, and some trails. There are a few markers of where things should have been, but not much else. It's a great place to go for a picnic.The owners do charge an admission, $5 a car and $30 for a bus.

The homestead on the banks of plum creek is an undeveloped preservation of the original dugout site on the banks of plum creek, the location of where Laura Ingalls Wilders book of the same name took place. It is on a private farm (yes, you drive right through someone's farmstead on a gravel driveway) and the donation per carload was $5 (honor system). By the gravel parking area there is a picnic table under the trees surrounded by prairie grass. The small creek was lined by trees. It was nice to be in the middle of nowhere and get a feel for what it was "back then". I found the lack of development to actually be a positive, not a negative as some visitors have noted. There is path along the creek, to a wooden bridge that crosses over to the dugout site that is marked with a marker. There is the"big rock" referenced in the book where Laura played. After crossing the bridge, the path goes up the bank to the dugout site which is surprisingly close to the water, with a short steep path directly down to the creek. If you go up a few steps from the dugout, you come out from the trees onto flat land with a view again of the prairie/farmland and big sky.That's all there is. I read the Little House books as a child and found this spot lovely, and made me want to read the book all over again. My 10 year old daughter also loved the spot. I'd say it was in our top 3 of Little House tourist attractions. But if you are looking for development and "things to do", go to the DeSmet sites (not to be missed), which were more organized activities and exhibits, but didn't give the the "feel" that this one did. The Walnut Grove museum was small but nice. They have a dugout/sod house the same size as what the dugout on Plum Creek would have been. TINY! It was worth going there just to see that. They also had some memorabilia of the times that didn't necessarily belong to the Ingalls but similar (a buffalo coat like Pa's, the big green book of animals the kids got to look at on Sundays, etc) as well as photos and short stories about the families mentioned in the book.There is one room devoted to the TV series which I didn't like much but my 10 year old loved. There are some other little period buildings, but the school in Desmet is the actual one the girls went to. The Mansfield site has a lot to say about Laura as a woman (and memorabilia like Pa's fiddle), but Plum Creek and DeSmet (homestead and town tours) were my favorites.

Fun to see, but nothing out of the ordinary. The kids had fun in Plum Creek, and it was fun to say we were On the Banks of Plum Creek

Every summer the small town of DeSmet puts on a musical out in the fields where the Ingalls had their farmsted. It is fun to watch the production sitting in your lawn chair or on a bench, enjoy the summer evening, and watch the play put on by volunteers from the community. We have gone several times over the years and it is a fun event every time.

Near Nellie's Cafe, this was fun, had a lot of history, and worthwhile exhibits and gifts and souvenirs. Not too high priced. For an admittance fee, one can take a short self tour around the museum area. Since the Ingalls were only in Walnut Grove for three years(having left once because of crop failure and grasshopper infestation only to return a year or so later), the time spent here will not be that long. Continue on US 14 to DesMet, SD where the Ingalls settled permanently and where all the family, except Laura, are buried. You will need to spend several days there for sure.

Should be made more exciting, plum creek was a total disappointment, it was dead! The land was not alive the way she describes, I know it has been 150 years but if you want to preserve something and then charge for it, it should be at least somewhat historically accurate. I had my wife and 7 kids with and we all but 1 were dissapointed.

Again you can walk where Laura walked and it is amazing. When a train goes by town you hear the whistle at the Dugout Site. A sound Laura heard back in 1874

Sweet. See the homestead; have a buckboard ride to the little schoolhouse; and have a lesson from the schoolmarm. It's a great experience for kids and grownups who love Laura Ingalls Wilder's books. Worth the detour. Brought my mom and she loved it.

The owners have kept it just like they found it. Great place to visit if you have read the books.

this is a must-see historic site for serious Little House fans - but not much to see for everyone else. The farm on the Banks of Plum Creek just outside of town, where the Ingalls family homesteaded and lived in a dugout, has been privately owned for many years. The family who live there allow visitors to access their land to view the collapsed creek bank where the dug-out was located in the 1870's. There is a historic marker at the site and some other landmarks are identified.There is also a nice picnic area.

In May, 2011, me and a few friends visited Walnut Grove, MN during a road trip. My sister and I are big fans of the Laura Ingles Wilder stories. We were extremely excited about having lunch at Nelly's Diner, shopping at Oleson's Mercantile, visiting the museum and the dugout, and swimming in Plum Creek! But, the town was a ghost town! Everything was run down and poorly maintained. I was very disappointed! It was NOTHING like the website made it out to be. We had planned on camping at the campground near Plum Creek, and it was ok (nothing to write home about). However, the weather was not suitable. We then had to drive another 45 minutes to find a decent place to stay. We had planned to stay for two days here. Instead, we decided to continue our trip the next morning and drive straight to Tennessee (approximately 19 hours). We didn't visit any of the sites during our visit because it simply wasn't worth our time! Sadly, I don't have any pictures. But, trust me; it's a long stretch of road leading to a whole bunch of nothing!

Enjoyed our visit in Walnut Grove. The inside displays are similar to the Mansfield, MO setup but we enjoyed Walnut Grove more due to the self tour you can take, it allows you to spend all the time you want in all of the displays including the dugout home and you don't have to stay with the tour guide like Mansfield. We also enjoyed the additional tv display room that none of the other locations have, it kind of brings everything together. This is a must visit to any Laura Ingall's fan.